


The 18 Year Mission

by PeachesandBones



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 01:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8125708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeachesandBones/pseuds/PeachesandBones
Summary: Jim knew that his boyfriend was a family man in his heart. He was pretty sure that if you were from Georgia, your primary directive was to pop out as many kids as possible and sit on the porch and watch them eat home-made peach pie. Bones kept a digital picture frame of Joanna on his desk, which flashed through a dark haired girl slowly getting taller, frame by frame. His paternal personality wasn’t restricted to his own child - the captain had seen many an ensign with McCoy’s arm around them, sniffling as he doled out some fatherly advice. Jim had always found it endearing that under the crusty facade, the doctor was just a big old teddy bear, waiting to be the father that so many had never had.
Somehow, however, Kirk had failed to notice this.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little piece of fluff I've had rolling around in my brain that begged to get out. Inspired by the episode 'Friday's Child'.

Jim knew that his boyfriend was a family man in his heart. He was pretty sure that if you were from Georgia, your primary directive was to pop out as many kids as possible and sit on the porch and watch them eat home-made peach pie. Bones kept a digital picture frame of Joanna on his desk, which flashed through a dark haired girl slowly getting taller, frame by frame. His paternal personality wasn’t restricted to his own child - the captain had seen many an ensign with McCoy’s arm around them, sniffling as he doled out some fatherly advice. Jim had always found it endearing that under the crusty facade, the doctor was just a big old teddy bear, waiting to be the father that so many had never had.

Somehow, however, Kirk had failed to notice _this_.

He supposed it was because they didn’t come across many pregnant women out in space. Which, really, it was a smart move not to get knocked up in a tin can going at warp 6 throughout the galaxy that was constantly exposed to attack and disease. If Jim were a woman, he’d be keeping his legs firmly closed for the five year mission (and he felt very grateful for the women in his past who hadn’t been as pragmatic as he theoretically would have been).

Yet, there was a woman on board brave enough to do it. Kirk had married ensigns Roberts and Polawski eight months ago, and like clockwork, she had announced to engineering her pregnancy four months after. By some unfortunate twist of fate, she was expecting twins, and she had ballooned quite considerably. Polawski and her husband both seemed quite pleased, however, as was Doctor McCoy.

Doctor McCoy might have been happier than the expecting couple, actually.

At first, Jim was a little off-put by the fact that their dinners together in the canteen had started being interrupted by Bones inviting the couple to dine with them. With a smile, he had suffered through conversations on possible baby names (“I’m thinking Elaine and Elisa.” “No sweetie, we went through this. Names starting with ‘E’ are ugly.”), future sleeping habits (“Should we cosleep?”) and complaints about how Polawski couldn’t see her ankles anymore (“Don’t worry baby, putting on your socks is my job now!”). After a particularly enlightening discussion on vaginal discharge, Jim started ordering their meals to be delivered to his quarters.

As she grew bigger, however, he noticed that his sweetheart couldn’t seem to keep his eyes, or his hands, off of her bulge. The bigger it got, the more it was rewarded with admiring gazes from Leonard, the more excuses he seemed to find to touch her belly, and Jim couldn’t help but feel slighted. He had a bulge that grew too, and it should be more worthy of admiration for the sheer fact that it could inflate and deflate several times a day! Yet when he went to sickbay and pressed himself against the doctor’s ass, all he got was a sigh and a weary “It’ll still be there tonight, Jim.”

Life wasn’t fair.

 

“Jim.” Bones greeted him as he stepped on the bridge. “Tell Scotty to stop messing around with the ship so much. I’ve had every single engineer in sickbay this week for burns. We’re not going to _have_ engineers if he doesn’t stop whatever pet project he has going on down there!” Jim smirked with amusement.

“He’s trying to see if the warp core can be upgraded to withstand higher warp speeds for longer distances. Something he read in an engineering journal.” McCoy shot him a look of disgust.

“Great, and then when it’s finally put into practical application, the ship is going to explode and we’re all going to die. I might as well stop treating them and use the time to start working on my will if we’re all going to be blown to smithereens in a few days!”

“Rough day in sickbay?” Kirk asked, grinning at his lover mischievously. Bones ‘humped’ and opened his mouth to start was was undoubtedly going to be another curmudgeonly story of the crew’s demise, when Polawski got off the lift.

“Nyota!” She called out, and he inwardly groaned as he saw the doctor turn slightly. Jim had lost him.

“I made two, just in case one of them happens to be a blanket hog!” Uhura replied proudly. She produced a bag and withdrew a knitted, multicoloured baby blanket.

“Oh my, Uhura!” The ensign grabbed the blanket and ran her hands over it. “This is amazing! You’ve outdone yourself!” The women giggled, and Jim raised his eyebrow at the entranced doctor.

“Bones?” He said softly. McCoy didn’t move a muscle.

“Bones.” He put on his captain’s voice, and Leonard snapped around like he had been hit, eye wide and a paler shade of blue as he met Jim’s warning glare.

“I… um… well, I should get back to work.” He mumbled, and shuffled off the bridge as the two women cooed in the corner.

 

“So, Bones.” Jim said casually as they both took their glasses of bourbon. “When did you develop your pregnancy fetish?” Bones choked on the sip he had taken, and scowled at the captain as he cleared his throat.

“I don’t have a pregnancy fetish, Jim. You’re the wrong kind of partner if that’s what gets me off.”

“Oh?” Kirk got up and strode into his bedroom, fiddling around on his bed before reappearing moments later. “You’re telling me that this doesn’t get you all worked up?” He asked, rubbing the pillow wedged under his tunic seductively. This earned him another scowl.

“If I had something to throw at you, I would.” Jim took the pillow out and threw it haphazardously in the direction of his bed before sitting back down.

“Seriously, you’re going to get reported for sexual harassment soon, or at least stalking. I haven’t seen you _that_ gaga about a woman since… well, _ever_. You were going to marry that Fabrini woman and you didn’t even look at _her_ like that!”

“It isn’t a sexual thing.” McCoy assured him, gazing down at his glass self-consciously. “It’s just…”

“Just what?” Jim prompted impatiently, leaning forward and cocking his head. Leonard sighed.

“When I was married, things started going south pretty quickly. It wasn’t until Jocelyn got pregnant that things started looking up again. I think those months were the happiest of our marriage.” The doctor reminisces. “We were both so happy. And then, being a country doctor, I delivered a lot of babies. Just uncomplicated deliveries that women wanted to do in the comfort of their homes. It was always so exciting - it was the moment that these couples had waited 9 months for, the culmination of a dream, the beginning of a family. Sure, it’s messy but I got to be a part of the happiest moments of these people’s lives. And then I got to watch the children grow up, and I was invited to baseball games and ballet recitals... On the ship, all I see is disease and death, and space madness. I guess I’m just a little excited about getting to do something different. There’s nothing like the joy of being able to deliver some tiny little baby into the world, Jim. At least, not for this old country doctor.” He took another sip, and looked at his partner pointedly. “So don’t be spreading weird rumours about me having the hots for pregnant women.”

“I think the rest of the crew got there before I could.” Kirk admitted, rubbing the rim of his glass absentmindedly. There was a moment of silence where he studied the doctor, hazel eyes sharp as he tried to unravel the pieces of this puzzle. “Bones, do you want more children?” McCoy shifted uncomfortably in his seat, eyes drawn towards the floor.

“I’ve thought about it. At least, before we got together.” He shrugged, trying to put on an air of indifference. “I don’t think you’d want to go through the hassle of a pregnancy though.”

“We both know you’d be the one being pregnant and barefoot.” Kirk snorted.

“Like hell.” Bones shook his head. “Pregnancy is brutal enough if your body was meant to do it. The implanted uterus and injected hormones are hell on the male body, then you have to get a c-section… I’ve met a couple of guys who went through it, and they vowed they’d get a surrogate for future children.” But there’s a hint of yearning in his voice, an undeniable desire that Jim can’t let go unanswered.

“We could get a surrogate too.” Jim pushed. “We could select for a little boy, with your blue eyes and my great hair… probably my build, too. He could play football.”

“What if he wanted to do ballet? He’d be fucked with either of our genetics.” McCoy replied wryly. “Besides, I wouldn’t raise a kid in space. It doesn’t seem fair.”

“We could go back to Earth after the mission. I’d get a teaching position, you’d get taken at any hospital you’d want to be in. We could make it work.” Jim argued. Bones sighed and put down his drink, shooting a wearied, yet promising smile at his boyfriend.

“We can cross that bridge when we come to it. C’mon.” He got up and grabbed Jim’s hand. “I think we have better things to do with our time right now.”

“Good. We can practice.” Jim’s hazel eyes lit up, and Bones rolled his eyes, but smiled genuinely.

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“You never know with advances in technology.” Kirk replied, following his lover to the bed. “I think we’d be great parents together. I’d be the cool dad, the one he gets broken bones with, and you’d be the one running around shouting at him to take his allergy medicine. It would be perfect.” He expected another scowl, perhaps some sort of lecture, but instead Bones pressed a kiss to his lips, looking at him with a solemn nakedness.

“You’d be a great father, Jim.” In spite of himself, images of baby rooms and baseball games and PTA meetings crossed his mind, and he couldn’t help but smile as the CMO pushed him down into the mattress.

An 18 year mission was a long one, and it was hardly a place no man had gone before, but perhaps seeking out strange new lifeforms on Earth held its own reward.


End file.
